Discover the Best Books Written by John U. Bacon
John U. Bacon is an American journalist and author of books on sports and business, as well as a sports commentator on TV and radio. After graduating from Huron High School, Bacon earned a bachelor's degree in History and a master's degree in Education from the University of Michigan. His first journalism job was as a lifestyle reporter for The Ann Arbor News in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
In 1995, Bacon became a sports feature writer for The Detroit News. During this period, he wrote articles on baseball player Jackie Robinson, the sport of bullfighting, and high school basketball at a Potawatomi Native American reservation in Michigan. In 1998, Bacon traveled to Nagano, Japan, to cover the 1998 Winter Olympics for The Detroit News. After the Olympics, Bacon left The Detroit News to become a freelance writer. He has written articles for The New York Times, Time, and ESPN The Magazine.
In 2000, Bacon started his radio career with a sports show on WAAM in Ann Arbor. In 2002, he started a radio show, Off the Field, on WTKA in Ann Arbor. In 2007, Bacon began providing weekly sports commentary on Michigan public television stations. In 2005, Bacon was awarded a Knight-Wallace Fellowship for journalism from the University of Michigan.
Bacon provides weekly sports commentary on behalf of the University of Michigan's athletic program for Michigan Radio and often appears on NPR, ESPN, and the Big Ten Network, among other networks. In 2015, his radio essay won first prize in the Public Radio News Directors Incorporated (PRNDI) awards. Bacon has been a guest on NPR's quiz shows Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! and Ask Me Another. Bacon gives speeches for corporations and other organizations, including three TEDx talks, another to receive the Golden Apple Award and the Knight-Wallace Fellows Program's Hovey Lecture.